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Posts Tagged ‘comp’

A Sneak Peek of the Pyro Update

Posted on: March 5th, 2017 by Obey

Look! Actual TF2 news…!

Oh, here’s a couple of tidbits before the actual Sneak Peek:

  • Login to the TF2 Newbs’ Forums and let us know what you’re playing lately, or read up {N} Olse’s ongoing XCOM 2 narrative.
  • This TF2Newbs Blog surpassed 300,000 lifetime hits earlier this year! Thanks for the scratches!
  • If you’re a TF2 noob, read this popular FAQ about all the different TF2 items. This post alone has earned over 28,000 hits.

Valve has been making the rounds in the media, dropping hints on what they’re working on in TF2. You can read Game Revloution’s short piece here, but here are the highlights:

 

team-fortress-2-adding-competitive-mode-matchmaking-2

 

Pyro Rebalance

Valve is currently busy with rebalancing the Pyro. It’s not clear if there are any new weapons, but you can be sure that some existing weapons are being tweaked, and so Valve is testing how such changes could affect they Pyro’s role and the game environment as a whole.

 

Contract Campaigns Will Return

Heavy Contract

Feedback that Valve has received demands more player choice in what kind of contracts to complete during these campaigns, so Valve is learned toward a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style of contract selection and completion. So it’ll feel more like a mini-quest? A skill tree? A treasure hunt? Eh, we’ll see. Hopefully this means you won’t be playing anything but stock Sniper because you have a contract that demands headshot kills.

 

Elo is Coming

The Electric Light Orchestra? No, the Elo rating system.

What?

Valve has been working on an (assumably Valve-made) rating system improvement over the play-to-win Rank system in TF2′s Competitive Mode. Elo is shorthand for saying that your overall win-loss record and/or your recent record of play will define an estimate of your playing skill, but only for the use of ranking you against other players in order to find players of (hopefully) similar skill to play against. Plenty of other gaming communities use it.

Team-Fortress-2-Competitive-Matchmaking-Featured-Image

You see, TF2 has long been home of the casual, tryhard-but-not-elite gamer that can usually find a server to enjoy the game without being constantly steamrolled by gaming elites. (Well, that has been the goal anyway.) Valve is trying to bridge those elites back into TF2 with a more familiar Competitive Mode, links to following other elite gamers, and ranking systems, while also giving us tryhards tools to be, you know, more competitive. Where before they were trying to cater to two different groups, they’ve realized that we’re one community with members of many different skill levels.

 

Welcome to the Jungle

As I’ve said previously, Valve has been working for months on jungle-themed terrain models in preparation for a new Valve-made map. Of course, community-designed cosmetics have been requested by Valve for some time now. Don’t forget to jump into the Steam Workshop and have some say in what virtual cosmetics you can buy in the near future.

through_the_jungle_by_lampenpam-d4czp2v

Gee, wouldn’t a jungle theme fit in great with a Summer Sale?

 

Steam Greenlight to be Reworked as “Steam Direct”

Later in the same interview, Valve discussed the bottleneck of indie games trying to get published on Steam. Valve intends to greatly simplify the process by passing a simpler validation process, rather than having gamers bother to rank a few of the many games they would like to see supported by Steam. That includes improving the Discovery Queue to target the user with games they would like based on their preferences, browsing, and other gathered data.

 

Anyway, expect Valve to put up a blogpost announcing changes–it has promised to communicate much more and gather feedback, rather than simply posting the day before a major update. (Again, Valve Time, but we’ll see.)  Valve has said officially that there are five coders assigned to TF2, part of a team of sixteen Valve members currently involved.

More sources/reading material:

 

[N] Obey

P.S. Don’t be surprised if TF2 updates to the Source 2 engine a couple of years from now. That’s the gaming software that Valve is trying to get their entire staff working with.

P.P.S. Valve is one company, made up of many employees. It’s singular, not plural. The journalistic community has changed their minds and started referring to companies and groups as a plural noun and not the correct, singular noun. Dudes, use the singular noun. If you make me say “Valve are” or “Valve have”, then I’MMA FIGHT YOU.  (This postscript has been approved by Saxton Hale.)

 

TF2 Smissmiss 2016!

Posted on: December 21st, 2016 by Obey

By the way, 2fort servers #04 (and sometimes #05 and #18) have been regularly starting up most evenings, usually around 6PM EST/3 PM PST, and are active for a few hours. If you’re looking for some 2Fort action without hackers or grossly unbalanced teams, just type “connect server4.tf2newbs.com” into your console; no password required.

Meanwhile, the ever-expanding adventures of the Newbs’ XCOM 2 saga can be found on our forums. Read up while you’re powering through all that fruitcake.

Speaking of fruitcake, server admin Packhead is streaming free Christmas music! Find that link on our forums as well.

Winter 2016

The short version of the latest Holiday Update:

  • The Steam Winter Holiday Sale started today!
  • No new contracts, maps, or weapons this season. Definitely a simpler update this holiday season.
  • Logging in to TF2 during this event scores you a Gift-Stuffed Stocking tool item.
    • If used, it contains 2-3 random weapons, paint can, name tag, description tag, backpack expander, giftapult, and occasionally other random items such as cosmetics. These items are untradeable.
  • The keyless Winter 2016 Cosmetic Crate drops new community-made cosmetics.
    • Instead of buying a key and dropping/buying a crate, you just buy the unlocked crate.
    • Crates don’t expire, but they can only be bought for a short time.
    • Crates have a chance of also dropping a Festivizer tool that makes an item festive.
    • Festivizers now work on more items.

Festivizer

  • Mann Co. Store is having a 20%-75% off sale, highlighting tools and cosmetics.
    • Sale now thru January 11th.
    • Valve Winter Sale hasn’t started… yet.
  • Matchmaking changes (see below)

 

 

Matchmaking Changes

At the end of a Comp or Casual match, the following happens:

  1. Players are automatically formed into a rematch with the same teams of players.
  2. Server then prompts map vote of current map or two others, based on searched maps of player prior to match.

Casual now has a new, voluntary version of the old autobalance system. During a match, you may be prompted to switch sides if teams become unbalanced because of players leaving games. If you volunteer, you will earn bonus XP during the match; you are not required to switch, and no one will be forced to switch sides.

Also, you can now set a maximum accepting ping for Comp or Casual matches but selecting the gear icon in the Matchmaking lobby.

 

Full Patch Notes: Dec 21, 2016

As always, full patch notes courtesy of the excellent Official TF2 Wiki.

  • All players who play TF2 during the event will receive a Stuffed Stocking as a gift! Stockings contain goodies for good little Mercenaries.
  • Added the limited-time key-less Winter 2016 Cosmetic Case to the Mann Co. Store
  • Added 3 new taunts to the Mann Co. Store
  • New weapons for the Festivizer!
  • Mann Co. Store winter sale!
    • Look for 20%-75% off selected unlocked cosmetic crates, taunts, and tools in the Mann Co. Store through January 11th, 2017
  • Matchmaking Improvements
    • At the end of a Casual match, players are automatically formed into a new match with the same players and teams
      • Players get to vote on which map the new match will take place on
        • There are 3 maps to vote on, chosen based on the maps everyone in the match had selected when they began searching for a match. The current map is always the first option.
      • This replaces the Rematch system
    • Players can now set their maximum acceptable ping by clicking the new gear icon in the top right of the Casual and Competitive matchmaking lobby screens and choosing “Ping Settings”
  • New autobalance system to help with balancing teams when players leave a match. The system will ask players to volunteer to switch teams.
    • Automatically enabled for all Casual match servers
      • Players who switch will be able to earn bonus XP as a reward
    • Community servers can enable this new feature by using “mp_autoteambalance 2″

General

  • Fixed security issue reported by Justin G. (sigsegv) and Linus S. (PistonMiner)
  • Fixed not clearing the teleport condition for players who have their teleport interrupted before the teleport is complete
  • Fixed PASS Time exploit related to bonus points
  • Updated mat_monitorgamma so it can be adjusted in Competitive mode
  • Fixed the ShouldPreserveSquad flag not being parsed correctly in Mann vs. Machine mode
  • Fixed a bug related to bot Engineers and teleporters in Mann vs. Machine mode
  • Fixed not being able to transfer Strange stats between versions of Jarate and the Sapper
  • Fixed incorrect particle position for Unusual taunt effects when using the Racho Relaxo(sic)
  • Added the ESA Rewind tournament medals
  • Added the Winter Wonderland 2016 community medals
  • Updated the Dalokohs Bar to fix a bug related to the health buff
  • Updated cp_metalworks to fix a texture problem
  • Updated pd_watergate
    • Respawn times will now change depending on which team is in the lead: 8 seconds to leading team, 4 seconds to trailing team
    • Moved the current beer amount to the center of the HUD
    • Added a jump to low spawn route to give respawned players something to do en-route to mid
    • Added a light to illuminate roof-snipers better
    • Adjusted some clipping[N] Obey 

Matchmaking Fixes: Sept 27 2016

Posted on: September 27th, 2016 by Obey

Here’s what’s up:

  1. More matchmaking improvements
  2. {N} Olse’s fictionalization of his fellow Newbs’ exploits in the world of XCOM 2 continues to update almost daily.
  3. Updated with minor Sept 28 patch

 

Casual Matchmaking: Rematches

When your Casual game ends, you can opt for a rematch. On the results page, you have 30 seconds to opt into a rematch. If at least 6 players from each side opt in, a rematch will begin, using the same teams, same map, and same server. The game will then draw in replacement players for any open slots.

If you don’t choose to opt-in to a rematch, you will automatically go back into the Casual Matchmaking queue. Leave the queue by manually removing yourself.

Team-Fortress-2-Competitive-Matchmaking-Featured-Image

Casual Matchmaking: All ‘Bout Dat XP

Had too many teamstacked Casual games? Valve continues to work on it:

Your Rank (which is partly a measure of your skill, and partly your playing time in Casual) is now a stronger factor when building teams.

Now, you no longer lose XP for leaving a Casual match early. You’ll earn it after the match ends. And at the end of the game, the chart will show you how you earned the XP you did.

 

Comp Matchmaking:

When a player leaves a match, a bot will replace that slot, and will play in that player’s place until the player rejoins the match. The substantial penalty for leaving a match remains the same.

Matches no longer end when the first player leaves, but they grant proportionally less XP as more players leave the match. But if a second person on the same side leaves the match, the match is still terminated.

 

 

Full Patch Notes: Sept 28 2016

  • Fixed some players not being able to click on the new rematch UI elements
  • Fixed the end of round music not playing in Casual matches

Full Patch Notes: Sept 27 2016

Matchmaking

  • Players can now form rematches at the end of a Casual match
    • At the end of a Casual match, players will have 30 seconds to opt-in to a rematch
    • If at least 6 players from BLU and 6 players from RED have chosen to rematch, then a rematch will begin
    • A rematch will use the same teams, map and server
  • Players can now re-queue into Casual Matchmaking during the end of a match
    • Players who decline a rematch or simply don’t vote in the rematch voting period will automatically be re-queued
  • Updated the way XP is earned in Casual matches
    • Players will now be awarded more XP based on their team’s performance at the end of a match
    • XP is no longer lost for leaving a Casual match early
    • A breakdown of XP sources is now shown when your XP bar fills up
  • Casual matches now more strongly prefer to distribute players to teams based on experience, in order to better avoid creating one-sided matches
  • Casual matches are now more likely to start with fewer than 24 players in lower population game-modes or regions, wherein the wait time for a full match would become excessive
    • The current minimum allowable match size in such situations is twelve players
    • The matchmaker will still attempt to place late-joiners into these matches as they become available
  • Competitive matches no longer terminate when any player abandons the match
    • Bots will now fill in for players who have abandoned, or temporarily disconnected from, Competitive matches
    • Matches that finish at an advantage or disadvantage (e.g. 6v5 or 5v6, not counting any bots) will now result in smaller or larger skill rating adjustments for advantaged wins or disadvantaged losses, respectively
    • Competitive matches that lose more than one player per team will keep the current behavior of ending the match
    • Players who abandon Competitive matches still receive a large skill rating penalty and Competitive matchmaking cooldown, regardless of whether a bot was allowed to take their place
  • Greatly improved the reliability of client ping estimates when placing users into matchmaking servers
    • The game client now periodically checks in with the matchmaking server network to estimate ping to each region, and feeds the information back to the matchmaking system
    • This should greatly reduce cases of players being placed in regions to which they have poor ping, even when said regions are geographically nearby
  • The scoreboard now shows the connection status for missing and connecting players

General

TF2 Patch Notes, Aug 19, 2016

Posted on: August 20th, 2016 by Obey

As usual, the patch notes are at the bottom of this post, covering patches from Aug 14th, 16th, and 19th. Highlights include:

  • The Pyro side won the Pyro vs. Heavy contest
  • Updated cp_metalworks for collision issues and other bugs
  • Comp Mode: Adjusted amount of rank points earned in some situations
  • (EDIT 8/24): Additional Comp Mode changes Valve is working on

 

Comp Mode Changes

If you are in the first tier of ranks in Comp Mode (rank 1-6 out of a possible 25), you will now lose substantially fewer rank points when you lose a match. Three reasons for this:

  1. A series of bad matches will be less likely to cause you to lose a rank. The goal of the ranking system is to be able to stratify users of similar skill, and being able to lose ranks due to latency issues or bad luck goes against this purpose.
  2. Having earned a rank is therefore weighted more heavily than your most recent match outcomes. If you’re Rank 4 out of a possible 25, you will have to play considerably worse over a period of time to fall all the way back to a 2 or a 1.
  3. This creates an even greater difference in the penalty between those who ragequit and those who merely lose a match. Ragequitters will continue to be pushed toward the bottom ranks.

If it weren’t for the method above, Valve would have to have users start at a middling rank to differentiate novice players from ragequitters, and that would not improve the quality of comp matches at that level. The novice player must still patiently win matches amongst the bottom ranks, separating him/herself from the dregs.

competitive

Fortunately, now there’s this: Players who post a high win/loss ratio in their recent matches will now gain bonus rank points (i.e. gain ranks faster), regardless of their current rank. This will both reward a player for effective a[djustments to strategic play, as well as hurry a skilled player toward a more suitable rank.

For example: If you're a Gold-level player on a given competitive circuit, you may start at Rank 1 like everyone else, but posting an 8-1 win-loss ratio will help you more quickly reach the Rank where you'll meet users of the same skill.

 

Comp Mode Changes Coming Soon

[Added Aug 24]

Valve is currently working on a better, Elo-style ranking system to improve on the current one, something that will better compare a player’s actual skill to his/her peers, rather than a ranking system highly dependent on playing time and other questionable factors.

Also, Valve intends to add the ability to quickly start another game with your current group, as well as to instantly jump back into the Comp queue once more.

 

Team Fortress 2, circa 2007

Some enterprising individuals have create a free standalone mod, using the 2013 Source engine, to recreate a vanilla Team Fortress 2 exactly as it was released in 2007. How vanilla? Stock weapons only, just like the initial release; the Pyro’s flamethrower didn’t yet have an airblast function. No items to unlock or drop; no item qualities or separate loadouts. Heavy gets a minigun, a shotgun, and his fists, and that’s it!

Only the original maps are available as well, such as Well and Dustbowl. The only difference is that the game is modded to use the newer 2013 Source engine. There aren’t many servers up yet, as the community is just getting off the ground (TF2Newbs isn’t involved at all). Just create your own and play.

Lambda Fortress

In the same mod, you can instead choose to launch Lambda Fortress, which is the game Half-Life 2 modded to substitute the 2007 TF2 characters in Half-Life 2! Want to wrestle up a teleporter and a sentry for yourself and the rest of your multiplayer team? Feel like rocket jumping around the map with a pocket medic? Now you can!

Lambda

It’s a mod, so it’s free. You don’t need Garry’s Mod either, as it is “Team Fortress 2 with Half-Life 2 assets”. Have fun storming the castle…!

 

 

Full Patch Notes: Aug 19, 2016

  • Fixed a common server crash that primarily occurred during Mann vs. Machine matches
  • Fixed a memory leak for OS X and Linux clients

Undocumented changes

Full Patch Notes: Aug 16, 2016

  • Competitive Mode
    • Players in the first tier of ranks (1-6) now lose substantially fewer rank points on match loss
    • Players with high win/loss ratios in recent matches now earn bonus rank points in order to accelerate their progress toward a more appropriate rank
  • Added report player context menu on scoreboard
    • Requires mouse input mode on the scoreboard (see Adv. Options)
  • Fixed a potential security issue (thanks to Justin G., aka sigsegv, and Linus S., aka PistonMiner, for this report)
  • Fixed an issue with The Righteous Bison and Pomson 5000(sic) hit detection where projectiles were being removed when colliding with invisible entities
  • Fixed a display issue with combat text damage numbers against Engineer buildings sometimes being incorrect (such as with weapons that do reduced damage against buildings)
  • Removed the damage effects and pain sounds when using the Rocket Jumper and Sticky Jumper
  • Updated PASS Time view model positions to support using FOV 70
  • Updated the animations for the Sharp Dresser to fix a clipping problem
  • Updated the localization files
  • Updated cp_sunshine to fix some clipping issues
  • Updated cp_metalworks
    • Adjusted the height of the ceiling in the room behind the second control point
    • Added some slight visual detail to various concrete rooms throughout (team color stripe)
    • Adjusted the height and width of various doors throughout the level. Mostly focused on primary paths into combat areas, with an eye towards standardizing door sizes where possible.
    • Fixed an angled playerclip brush above 2nd control point that players could surf on (thanks Photon)
    • Adjusted height of ‘tank’ in L room behind 2nd control point
    • Moved two tall spotlights back into a clipping brush at mid to avoid very small collision issue (thanks Bilbert)
    • Adjusted some clipping issues by turning rooftop brushes into displacements/func_brushes throughout the map and disabling collision (thanks Bilbert)
    • Clipped off some glass windows at 2nd
    • Added crate to cargo containers at mid, allowing scouts(sic) to get onto the highest cargo container
    • Added props to the clipping ramp around the final control point to indicate collision
    • Replaced brush fence on the platform in alley with a metal prop to solve an asymmetrical shadow bug (thanks Bilbert)

Full Patch Notes: Aug 14, 2016

  • Updated menu content for upcoming end of the Heavy vs. Pyro war

Undocumented changes

[N] Obey

TF2 Matchmaking Changes

Posted on: July 30th, 2016 by Obey

When TF2 suddenly introduced their casual and competitive modes and removed quickplay, a lot of problems became immediately apparent. Two weeks have passed since the launch, and I can say that both modes have much improved. Let’s dig into what has changed now that quickplay no longer exists–and see what else is going on:

  1. Heavy vs. Pyro ends Sunday, August 14th. Pyro is winning, 55% to 45%, at this time.
  2. {N} Olse has a signup on the forums for his next Newbs XCom 2 write-up.
  3. Terraria patched
  4. Short tutorial on TF2 Matchmaking
  5. Full patch notes from July 28

 

XCom 2: Newbs Edition!

It’s that time again: {N} Olse will write up an account of how us Newblets will save the world in 2038! Just sign up on the forums by creating a character according to his guidelines. Olse will play thru the game with characters designed by Newbs’ specifications, and then fictionalize that outcomes for a story for you to read!

 

Terraria Patch 1.3.2 is now Live

So what’s new in Terraria? Here you go:

  • Having a Party Girl in your town will occasionally cause town members to throw a Party. Party Girl and Clothier sells different stuff during a Party, including a piñata that looks like a pig.
  • You can now choose what kind of evil corruption is in your world during world creation, as long as you have a world savefile that has unlocked Hardmode.
  • A lot of bugfixes.

This isn’t much of an update, but developer ReLogic says that a future patch will create a biome out of the Underground Desert, and its hallow/corrupt/crimson hardmode variants, so there’s that to look forward to.

Also, they have been hard at work on Terraria: Otherworld for some time. The game is going to be a more RPG-centric game with more concrete goals, skill trees, NPCs with deep personalities, etc. They’ve hired a new art director and have decided to rework much of the game, so I don’t think you’ll see it enter beta in the next two years.

I continue to mention Terraria news because a lot of Newbs players own and play Terraria.

 

A Short Tutorial on the New TF2 Matchmaking

Helpful links:

Note that the option “Quickplay” no longer exists. Now, you can choose from the following options when you hit “Find a Game”:

  • Casual: After a short wait, you’ll join a game (occasionally in-progress) randomly selected from the map options you’ve checkmarked.
    • No penalties for leaving in the middle of a match.
    • A typical match tends to take 10-30 minutes.
    • You can level up your Casual Rank by scoring points and winning matches.
  • Competitive: After a short wait, you’ll join a 6-on-6 match on a randomly selected control point map.
    • Big penalties (in Rank, cooldown before joining next match) for leaving in the middle of a match.
    • A typical match tends to take 5-20 minutes.
    • Your Competitive Rank can go up or down depending on the match results.
  • Mann vs. Machine: After a short wait, you’ll join a team of players that fight a bunch of computer-controlled robots.
    • Boot Camp is free-to-play, and some servers allow more than 6 players.
    • Mann Up requires tickets, limits the party to 6 players, and provides rewards for completing missions.
  • Community Servers: Opens the Server Selection window so you can select a Favorited server, one you’ve played in your History, or search for one on the Internet.
    • This is how you can find our TF2Newbs servers!
  • Training: Complete solo practice missions to learn how to play TF2.
  • Create Server: Launch your own server, choosing any map that you have preloaded into your TF2 files. You can have players join and/or bots can play as well.

Casual Play

Casual Play replaced Quickplay for the following reasons:

  • You will typically (but not always) join a game before the match has begun. A Valve server identifies 24 players (or up to 32, depending on the server) currently searching for a game, then starts the game by pulling them all in at the same time.
    • I’m not sure if Casual Rank is a variable in which players will join you in a match, so players of all levels of Casual Rank may be lumped together in a server.
  • The server will attempt to pull in players a little while after a player abandons the server or disconnects.
  • Autobalancing is disabled, but votekicking was enabled once more after the July 28th patch. So you can complete an entire match (each team gets to attack and defend once, or best two-out-of-three rounds on symmetrical control point maps, for example) with the same team of players.
  • If you want to play with your friends, you can Create a Party beforehand. Your entire party will then be on the same team.
    • If you invite them to a game after the match has begun, there is no guarantee that they will join your side–they cannot join Spectator, and will be assigned a team when they arrive.
  • There is NO penalty for leaving a Casual match. You can join another match at any time, and you get credit to your rank, based on your play up to the point of leaving/disconnection.

Oh, and you do get to choose the map and game modes you wish to play! Under each play format, you can click open a window to enable/disable specific maps. Use this function when you want to play on a specific map right now, or you only want to play on a list of your favorities. Note that only official Valve maps, unlike the beta map Asteroid, are available.

casual(In the above picture, slightly fewer players are searching to play Hoodoo than Borneo. If I begin the search, I may ended up at a Hoodoo or Borneo map, but not an Upward map, and never at a Payload Race map.)

 

Competitive Play

competitive

This has come around because serious TF2 players have wanted this option for years. Valve’s Comp Play is still quite different than the competitive leagues out there, but they are much more accessible, since you don’t have to join a team, organize practices, discuss strategies, or work around item restrictions. So consider it Comp Play Lite if you wish. But here are the features:

  • TF2 Comp Play still revolves mostly around 5CP maps, so only the following maps are available (randomly selected for the match):
    • Badlands 5CP (not KOTH)
    • Foundry (just added!)
    • Gorge CP (not 5CP)
    • Granary (just added!)
    • Gullywash
    • Metalworks
    • Process
    • Snakewater
    • Sunshine
    • Swiftwater (just added!)
    • Vanguard (just added!)
    • Viaduct KOTH
  • You can Create a Party–and it is recommended that you do so–but you can also jump in with solo or with a partial party.
    • There are no class limits, no item restrictions, and no votekicking or autobalancing. But if you choose Sniper, you better be good, or you’re going to hear about it from your party.
    • Currently only 6v6 is supported, but other modes such as 9v9 may be supported in the future.
    • You don’t get to choose your map.
  • Random critical hits are disabled. You only get critical hits when a buff or uber grants them to you; this is typical of most comp leagues out there.
  • This is Ranked Play: your party will face a party of similar average Rank.
    • Your Rank can go up or down after a match depending on match won/loss, points scored, and other elements of your play.
    • There is a hidden ELO in the game, which is represented by your Rank. If you were to always play at the same relative skill level, your Rank will rise to that level and then stay roughly the same.
  • There are penalties for abandoning a match.
    • You will receive a greater loss of Rank than if you had merely lost the game (since the July 28th patch).
    • A “cooldown timer”, which won’t let you join another match after an Abandon, is enforced.
      • If you have played only a few games, the cooldown timer is much greater (hours’ and days’ cooldown).
      • Each Abandon increases this cooldown timer before you can play the next match.
      • All of this is designed to prevent the player who tries to leave a match in order to avoid incurring a loss. A player with lots of losses has an accurate Rank; a player with lots of Abandons is not a team player that ruins the game for everyone.

Community Servers

Don’t want to play on a Valve server? Join a community server for any of the following reasons:

  • You want to play on our TF2Newbs servers! Of course you do.
    • To join server #04, a 2Fort server: open your console, and type the following:
      • connect server4.tf2newbs.com
    • Then, Favorite us so you can find us again quickly!
  • You want to play on a server with alltalk, class limits, randomizer, or other options
  • You want to be able to join spectate, change sides, vote for an autobalance, or just wander around exploring
  • You want to play on a server with admins that can help when there is a problem, or you want a family-friendly server
  • You want to find a trade server, a Sniper-friendly server, a jump server, or an MGE server
  • You like to play on a server that has regulars that frequent the same playing space, and can chat with while gaming

Playing games is a social act, and so it makes sense to build and support a community where people can gather to play their favorite games.

 

Create a Server

Can’t find any active server to play on the Asteroid map? Feel like practicing your Soldier skills against a bunch of Engineer bots on Dustbowl? Do you want to invite your friends to a map you’ve made yourself? Use “Create a Server” to do all of these and more.

It is necessary to be familiar with console commands to load bots, use cheats, and otherwise make changes to the server. Hit the tilde (~) key to open the console, where you can type in commands.

Bots need a navigation mesh to be able to play a map; without one, they stay in spawn. If you’re using a map other than one of these, then you will need to generate a mesh for the bots with a command, which may require several minutes and will restart the server.

 

Full Patch Notes: July 28, 2016

  • Matchmaking
    • Competitive Mode
      • Abandon penalty times are now longer for first-time abandoners with a low number of games played
      • Abandoning a game now results in significant rank loss. This loss is always greater than losing a given match.
      • Fixed an issue where players could drop and reconnect too many times before triggering an abandon
    • Casual Mode
      • Matches can now start with fewer than 24 players when there are not enough compatible players in queue
        • The match will still add additional players (up to 24) as they become available
        • This should improve queue times for low-population regions and game modes
      • Added maps cp_gullywash, cp_snakewater, and koth_probed
      • Fixed not being able to cycle between spectator modes
  • Weapon viewmodels
    • The field-of-view slider has been re-added to Adv. Options menu (range: 54 to 70 degrees)
      • This feature is now allowed in Competitive Mode
    • Improved and fixed many animations when using a higher viewmodel field-of-view
    • Removed custom animations from the sv_pure whitelist because it was being exploited
    • Adjusted The Cow Mangler(sic) and Black Box reload animations to be slightly faster (they now match the default rocket launcher)
  • Your class portrait will now always be the innermost in the match status HUD (top center) and will have a slightly brighter background
  • Added the Prinny promo items to the Mann Co. Store
  • Added the Florida LAN 2016 community medal
  • PASS Time update
    • Fixed achievement items (e.g. Civilian Grade JACK Hat) not cloaking with the Spy
    • Tweaks and fixes for all maps
    • Fix pack speed not being updated sometimes
    • Aiming players will no longer receive pack speed bonus
    • Some adjustments to reduce average round length
      • Overtime will end immediately if the winning team touches the ball
      • Overtime won’t happen if it’s impossible for the losing team to win
  • Fixed players being able to avoid a vote-kick by reconnecting to the server at the right time
  • Fixed the pd_watergate HUD not drawing
  • Fixed Engineer teleporter exits sometimes detonating when used due to invisible geometry
  • Fixed getting a black screen if the chat window was open when the match stats were being shown
  • Fixed weapons not being hidden during some taunts for the Engineer, Medic, and Soldier
  • Fixed Spy cloak causing the HUD 3D Character to cloak for the player the Spy is disguised as
  • Fixed a client crash related to the animation system
  • Fixed a bug where players in looping taunts could sometimes cause other clients to drop from the server
  • Fixed not seeing particle effects for Unusual versions of Baseball Bill’s Sports Shine, Ritzy Rick’s Hair Fixative, and Texas Slim’s Dome Shine
  • Fixed hearing the “team wipe” Announcer audio at the incorrect times

Undocumented changes

[N] Obey